Grandma, tell us again about "butter"

Two weeks ago, Jim came back from his first trip to the fancy import grocery store and said the prices were unbelievable. I indulged him his sticker shock - it takes a while to get used to Quaker oatmeal and Old El Paso taco mix at twice their American prices. It was much worse than that, he said - butter was over twenty bucks, and there was just one package of it. He said there was a sign in English and Japanese claiming short supplies.

Since then, I've read a few stories about the great Japanese butter shortage. I get it generally - grain prices, biofuel, meat-mad Chinese, car-crazy Indians. I'm always left feeling like there are a few dots that these stories connect with a circular argument or a jab at China instead of a fact. But that's probably due to gaps between my own world economics dots.

I'm still not sure how the glut and subsequent voluntary reduction two years ago of Japan's domestic dairy output (cream down drains!) affected the number of tubs of French Plu Gras avec Sel de Mer at Nissin. (Do top tier French farms get their butter milk from drought-plagued Australia?)

Whether or not I'd embarrass myself on a global econ test, the facts on the ground are that there is less butter in the stores here. Which is why we were surprised to find a box of it at the Mini Stop across the street, just minding its own business at a normal price, about three bucks.

Here then, for posterity, a box of Snow Brand Hokkaido butter.


Maybe I can sell it on the black market.